


Burn Out the Day, Burn Out the Night: An Exclusive Interview with Tony Stark

by laudatenium



Series: I'm Burnin' (For You) [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Univers - Wildfire, Gen, Interview Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-27
Updated: 2014-11-27
Packaged: 2018-02-27 03:56:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2678120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laudatenium/pseuds/laudatenium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rumors of him reverting back to his old hedonistic ways have abounded in recent months, though, as Stark has not been seen in public since his appearance at a red-carpet event in June.  It’s been over three months.  What has Tony Stark been up to?  That is the question on everyone’s lips, and I visited him to find the answers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burn Out the Day, Burn Out the Night: An Exclusive Interview with Tony Stark

**Author's Note:**

> Title from “Burning for You” by Blue Öyster Cult.
> 
> This is the interview Tony did to announce his injuries, and to explain where he had been for the past two months. It doesn’t have much bearing on the storyline, but it kind of explains Tony’s history in this AU.

**Burn Out the Day, Burn Out the Night**

**An Exclusive Interview with Tony Stark**

 

Interview by Tobias Reilly.

 

 

 

The name Tony Stark is synonymous with innovation. 

 

The name Stark was associated with weapons technologies for three-quarters of a century.  Until the infamous Stane Scandal, Anthony Edward Stark did his best to uphold the family legacy, at the same time as he was making his own reputation as a world-class playboy.  But after friend and mentor Obadiah Stane was found to be selling Stark weaponry to know terrorist groups, a great change occurred in Stark. 

 

Shirking the much-envied military weapons contracts, Stark set about completely renovating his and his company’s image.  Stark Industries has since become the world leader in self-sustaining clean energy.   With his revolutionary arc reactor technology, and the tremendous success of SI’s line of smart communications, Stark is changing the game for every person in the world.

 

And personally, Stark has cleaned up his act.  Despite persistent rumors of salacious actions, nothing is substantiated.  The only proven relationship Stark has had was the six-month whorl-wind with longtime personal assistant / CEO / friend Virginia “Pepper” Potts.  The romance failed, but the pair remains close.

 

Rumors of him reverting back to his old hedonistic ways have abounded in recent months, though, as Stark has not been seen in public since his appearance at a red-carpet event in June.  It’s been over three months.  What has Tony Stark been up to?  That is the question on everyone’s lips, and I visited him to find the answers.

 

 

 

Now, I interviewed Tony Stark four years ago, several months before the Stane Scandal broke, and he had lived up to every expectation.  The perfectly poised legend, polite yet endearingly snarky, he lived up to every expectation of the famous Tony Stark as he led me on a tour of his headquarters.

 

This time however, the interview was to take place in Stark’s home at the foot of Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.  It’s a place few ever get to see, as it remains the notable exception to the debauched bachelor pads Stark has spread around the world.  Its location remains a secret, but it lies about half-way up a rocky mountain side.  The house is modern, but retains an earthy tone, that allows it to blend well with the mountains.

 

The Tony Stark that greeted me is also very different from the one I met four years ago.  His face is more lined, and the hair dye he uses has been allowed to grow out, leaving threads of sliver around his temples and ears.  This usual perfectly tailored Italian suit has been replaced by track pants and a soft grey wrap-around sweater.  He also looks more at ease that I’ve ever seen in a press photograph.  Always one to be calm, he had also lost a lot off the nervous energy that characterized the mad genius.

 

After a friendly greeting, I was lead into modern living room that somehow emanated warmth rare in most celebrity homes.  The couches were covered in cushions and well-worn afghans.  The coffee table had several sketchbooks on it.  Stark quickly closed one, but not before I caught a glimpse of an incredibly detailed drawing of Stark himself, apparently posed nude on the sofa.

 

“I’d offer you the couch, but you might not want to sit there until I get it cleaned.  It’s . . . seen some action recently, to say the least.”

 

Stark offered me coffee, and then with him on the disorganized couch, and I on a leather armchair, we settled in for our interview.

 

“Were you involved in a sitting for an artist before I arrived?”

 

“Uh, yeah, earlier this morning.  Didn’t finish.  We, ah, got distracted.”

 

“I see.  People have been wondering what you’ve been up to in the last few months.  Is this it, posing for artists?”

 

“No, I’ve taken a break from public life.  Surely that’s not illegal?  I’ve had some projects I wanted to get done, uninterrupted.  Now, that’s impossible, but I’ve had a lot of time to work on some new things.  My concentration is better up here in the mountains.  I love it up here.”

 

“Anything of interest?”

 

“Oh, it’s very interesting.  I’ll be announcing these innovations officially later in the year, so you’ll just have to sit tight.”

 

“No weapondry?”

 

“Hell, no.  I just got out of that.  Don't need to slide back down the hole."

 

“I have some questions about your exit from the weapons industry, if you don’t mind.”

 

“Shoot.”

 

“You were in the North Tower of the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11.”

 

“Yes, I was on the way to a meeting.  My assistant and I were in a stairwell.  If she hadn’t forced us to take the stairs, we would have been in the elevator when the plane hit.  The elevator shafts became superconductors for the jet fuel.  If Pepper hadn’t insisted we walk, we’d be crispity-cruchity corpses right now.”

 

“You suffered from a shattered kneecap.”

 

“Better to have pins in your joints than be dead.”

 

“You’re still very active in charities supporting those affected.”

 

“Well, it affected a lot of people who had no pull in such a fight.  Civilians, most of them, people who hadn’t done anything except go to work like they were supposed to.  And it’s not like their problems went away after the cleanup.  People had lost loved ones, and a year and a lump sum doesn’t make that go away.  And those of us that survived?  That [sic] stuff we were inhaling was toxic.  Powdered glass and rare alkaline metals and asbestos.  The effects of breathing that in are only just starting only just starting to show.  My doctors are very vigilant about watching my health of any signs of repertory illness or anything else that might be a side effect.  But if I develop something, I can afford treatment.  Most of the worst affected are the first responders, and no one on a government salary can afford decent medical treatment.  Some one very close to me, his friend lost his hearing as a result of being too close to a gas line when it blew.  If I didn’t have these funds set up, he wouldn’t have been able to get treatment.”

 

“You were the biggest name to be directly affected, and after were one of the biggest supporters of the wars in the Middle East.”

 

“Yeah, well, I was right there when it happened.  Sure, the president and a lot of other bigwigs stopped by to visit the site, and there are always a [sic] ton of celebrities in Manhattan, but being nearby, or visiting the site after doesn’t put you there on that morning.  It was utter pointless destruction.  I think everyone there wanted it to end.”

 

“After you so strongly supported the War on Terror, what made you think that stopping weapons production was a good idea?”

 

This is obviously a very touchy subject, because Stark bristles.  “Look, I wasn’t always aware of what my company was doing.  After 9/11, all I wanted was to stop something like that from ever happening again.  I didn’t figure what my weapons were being used for, and that will weigh on me of the rest of my life.  I thought it would end, but it didn’t.  After Stane’s dealings came out, I realized no one was getting anywhere.  People were just dead, because of what I built.  On both sides.  Weapons I had built to save American lives were ending them, along with countless civilians.  The best way to end that was to pull the plug on weapons development, and get involved in something more positive.”

 

“Let’s talk about the Stane Scandal.  Not only was a person in your company found to be backdoor dealing to our enemies, but it was a man who had been someone close to you since childhood.  What did you make of his betrayal?”

 

“See here, Obie wasn’t my friend.  I inherited him from my father.  Obie took charge of the company in the interim between my parents’ deaths and my twenty-first birthday.  After I was allowed to take the reins, well, it’s difficult to give up power once you’ve had it.  He was always trying to turn the board of directors against me.  But he needed my tech, so he couldn’t get rid of me completely.  His betrayal, while I didn’t expect it to happen in the way of under-the-table dealing with America’s enemies, I expected _something_ or other to happen.  It didn’t hurt like a stab in the back, more like a dog bite after it got diagnosed with rabies and you didn’t shoot it.  Not like you were betrayed, but like someone you knew would hurt you if you didn’t stay away.”

 

“And now?  Stark Industries have gone in a completely different direction.  You’ve made huge innovations in wireless energy, and the newest line from Stark Communications has been selling like hot cakes.  What do you make of your new direction?”

 

“We have been giving the boys at Apple a run for their money in the personal wireless devices, but arc reactor technology is where we are putting our _energy_.  Hopefully in the next ten years every major infrastructure in the US will be operating on arc reactor tech.  Within thirty years, hopefully fossil fuels will be obsolete.  It will be a gradual transition though, and hopefully we can make sure of minimal job loss.”

 

“Your own life has gone in a very different direction.  You seem to have put your harder partying days behind you.  Have you?”

 

“I’m in my forties.  My liver has already had enough stress for twenty lifetimes.  It was about time."

 

“In terms of your love life, there have been many rumors over the past several months.  You’ve been connected to several women, and were rumored to have taken a sort of harem to a private island.  Care to clear the air?”

 

Stark laughs, carefree and happy in a way that one doesn’t usually associate with such a jaded persona.  “I’ve been here the whole time.  I know I’m often seen as a member of the jet-set, but I’m not just some shmuck living off daddy’s money.  I’m working, constantly.  I’ve come through with a lot of the innovations I just told you about this summer.”

 

“Usually you’re in and out of everywhere.  You haven’t been seen in three months.  Why haven’t we seen you?”

 

Stark coughs, looking oddly self conscious.  He fiddles with his sweater.  “I’ve been kind of laid up.  There was a pretty bad wildfire in the area several months ago.  I was a dumb [sic], and I didn’t evacuate when I was told.  When I was finally harangued out, the truck the fire captain was using to get me out of there blew.  I got burned, literally, pretty badly.  I’ve spent the last two months in recovery.  It was better to stay up here, get some peace.”

 

“Are you comfortable with allowing us to see the burns?”

 

Stark grins his trademark tooth-filled grin.  By way of answer, he moves to untie his wrap-around sweater.  Beneath is his bare chest, covered in mottled white-and-tan scar tissue.  The burn forms a sort of sunburst pattern directly over his pectorals, with a raised near-perfect circle at the center of his sternum.

 

“I was going to get plastic surgery to remove the worst of the keliods, but someone very close to me convinced me not to.  There really is no benefit to surgery aside from appearance.  Nothing can replace the damaged nerve endings, otherwise everything is cosmetic.  I’ve started to see the value that scaring has.  A wound, it’s a weakness that can make you stronger.”

 

“It looks pretty bad. It doesn’t hamper you in anyway?”

 

“It’s still pretty tender.  Just last week I was okayed to stop using bandages.  But other from discomfort, I’m fine and am well on the path to recovery.  Burns to my hands would have ruined me, and anything to my face would have been a tragedy, don’t you think?  But no, nothing that’s going to keep me down too long.”

 

“Someone must be caring for you.  Has anyone special been keeping you company?”

 

Stark turns to the window, a far-off look in his eyes.  He’s got a soft smile on his face.  “Yeah.  He’s very special.”

 

“Are you saying you are currently in a romantic relationship with a man?”

 

“So?”  The sappy look is gone.  “So what if I’m in a relationship with a man?  I don’t advertise it, but I’m pansexual.  I don’t care about the structure of your genitals, as long as you _have_ them.  The media usually only reports my female conquests, and I have to say the vast majority of the people I’ve slept with are women, but that doesn’t mean I’m immune to the charms of the male portion of the species.  I just so happened to meet the most genuine person in the world, and he liked me too, for some reason.  The fact that he’s got a dick doesn’t change the worth of him as a person.”

 

“Is there any chance of us meeting him?”

 

“No, he’s at work.  Made sure to be out of the way.  He’s thoughtful like that.”

 

“Can you tell us anything about him?  What’s his name?”

 

“Steve.  He’s a wildland fire captain.  He’s the one who was drawing me.  We’ve been together for a couple months now, but it’s seriously the most real relationship I’ve ever had.  This isn’t flying all over the world, heading to the best parties and drinking the best wine.  It’s me working in my workshop until he gets off the clock.  We eat dinner, hang out, head to bed.  In the past I would have said that’s boring, but I’ve never been happier.”

 

“You sound fairly domesticated.”

 

“I _am_ , and I don’t know whether to be terrified or ecstatic.”

 

“When will you be back?  Will Steve be coming with you?”

 

“I’m gonna lay low for another few months.  I’m still in recovery.  But by next year, I’ll be back and better than ever.”

 

 

 

So there you have the words from the man himself.  Tony Stark is down, but nothing’s keeping him out.  The only thing we can do now is wait to see what the genius has in store next.

**Author's Note:**

> I've never interviewed someone, so forgive me if it's not very accurate. I'd love to hear what you think.


End file.
